The World Cup playground is the dream of all national teams in the world. However, India has denied this opportunity for an unbelievable reason.
Indian football has made strong strides in recent years. The domestic tournament of India attracts the attention of millions of fans and is growing. However, the national team has never had a chance to attend the World Cup once in history.
But few know that India was invited to the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, when other regional representatives, Burma, Indonesia and the Philippines, all withdrew.
However, India also later asked to withdraw because it wanted to go barefoot when playing while FIFA had asked all players to wear shoes in professional matches. Earlier, the Indian team also competed with eight barefoot players in the squad for the 1948 Olympics.
Later, some characters revealed that their love for barefoot football was not the only reason why India left the tournament. Accordingly, the Indian Football Federation (AIFF) that day did not really attach importance to the World Cup and wanted to focus on the Asian and Olympic Games.
Besides, the cost of moving to Brazil is also considered a big challenge that India cannot attend. Also in that tournament, Turkey Tel had to withdraw for the same reason.
India won tickets to Brazil for the 1950 World Cup in an easy way like Indonesia’s 1934 World Cup when their eliminated opponents Myanmar, Philippines and Indonesia simultaneously gave up.
Although winning tickets without having to play a qualifying match, India proved very confident before the World Cup. That confidence is gained through good practice matches with Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
But ahead of his departure to Brazil, India received a lightning strike from FIFA. They will have to compete with shoes in the World Cup finals according to the newly added rules of this organization. It must be clearly stated that before that, there were no rules in FIFA’s rules that required players to wear shoes. They only make rules when there is another case of Indians.
However, India had attended football at the 1948 Olympic with a barefoot squad without anyone talking, now having to wear shoes is very difficult to kick and insists on not accepting the rules that arise of FIFA. On the other hand, Indian officials insisted they did not have the funds to prepare the shoes when FIFA announced it was too urgent.